The final goal of our team, established since 2015 as an emergent research group at the IMIBIC, is to find those evidences that help to make decisions in the clinical setting to improve the diagnosis and the treatment of the patients with immune-mediated chronic inflammatory skin diseases of high prevalence or of special severity, such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, chronic urticaria, vitiligo, suppurative hidrosadenitis, and various chronic alopecias such as alopecia areata or frontal fibrosing alopecia.
Our group consists of 17 researchers: 10 Clinicians (5 Dermatologists, 3 Hospital Pharmacists, and 2 Nurses) and 7 non-clinicians (1 Study Coordinator, 3 BSc in Biology PhD candidates, 3 Medical Students).
Our group also promotes the participation of students of undergraduate, postgraduate, and physician specialists in training by means of collaboration with the degrees and postgraduate programs of Medicine, Chemical sciences, and Biotechnology (medical Education, MSc programs, PhD programs).
All research activities of the group are guided by our commitment to:
- Encourage participation of citizens in observational studies and clinical trials promoted and participated by our group.
- Promote actions that attract the R + D + I industry by offering collaborations in the form of service delivery models or co-development agreements of innovative ideas from results obtained by our group or from needs or problems found in relation to some research product of the industry itself.
- Stimulate transversal collaboration with other research groups dedicated to areas such as applied physics, nanotechnology, and evidence synthesis or with other high level Spanish or foreign centers (Cochrane collaboration, Rockefeller University, Mount Sinai Hospital).
- Communicate to other researchers and citizens the results obtained, through participation in scientific meetings, publications in journals and meetings with associations of patients and young people in training, who visit us regularly.
- Collaborate with the other groups of the IMIBIC in generating talent in future generations of researchers, especially in those with clinical profile, through collaboration with the Degree and Postgraduate programs of the University of Cordoba and the University of Granada.
Lines of Research
- We use different technological platforms to analyze biological samples from patients and controls to explore the cellular and tissue functioning using multiscale approach (gene-expression analyses, miRNAs, circulating microparticles, cell cultures, and single-cell assays).
- Since 2015 we created a collection of more than 1500 skin and blood samples from nearly 400 patients with inflammatory skin diseases and healthy people.
- We have stablished collaborative agreements for the development of research projects with Dr. Emma Guttman, director of the Ezcema Center and Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin diseases, Icahn School of Medicine Center at Mount Sinai New York (USA) and Rockefeller University (NY, EEUU).
- This strategy has enabled them to achieve some important milestones such as:
- To decipher the molecular profile of scalp psoriasis using immunohistochemical techniques, quantification and gene expression of molecules that mediate inflammation.
- To identify two proteins of the JAK/STAT pathway whose genes are overexpressed in the cutaneous and overexpressed and non-lesional of patients with vitiligo and others with frontal fibrosing alopecia. The significance of these results is that they are potential targets for therapies that are currently on the market and that have no approved indication for the treatment of these diseases.
- To describe, for the first time, the role of skin-resident cells, both immune and non-immune, in the development of atopic dermatitis, using the novel technology of genomic profiling by sequencing of individual cells.
- Since 2012 we have enrolled more than 450 patients to analyze clinical, biometrical, dietary and exercise habits, and blood samples used to assess drug efficiency, to perform efficiency, economic, pharmacogenetic, and gene-environment interaction studies.
- The group got founding to develop this research line from the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII) (ICI1400136/2015-2018 to JR).
- Five PhD candidates are working on this line of research.
- This line has enabled them to achieve some important milestones such as:
- To describe for the first time the seasonal patterns of relapse in anti-TNF psoriatic responders after temporary drug discontinuation.
- To indentify the STAT3 31313A > G (rs744166) polymorphism as a genetic factor influencing the metabolic syndrome phenotype and anti-TNFs response in women with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.
- We have established collaborative agreements for the development of research projects with Dr. J. Krueger, director of the Laboratory of Investigative Dermatology, the Rockefeller University, New York (USA), and Dr. Mayte Suárez-Fariñas, Associated Professor, Dept. of Population Health Science and Policy, Dept. of genetics and Genomics Science, Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Icahn School of Medicine Center at Mount Sinai New York (USA).
- To be part of the expert panel of evaluators of scientific projects of the EU H2020-JTI-IMI2 programme on genome-environment interactions in inflammatory skin disease.
- This line allows them to offer patients the possibility of accessing new therapeutic options.
- They have participated in 45 clinical trials (phase II and phase III), four observational studies and one independent clinical trial.
- 130 patients with different inflammatory skin diseases have participated in these trials. (plaque psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, alopecia areata, chronic urticaria, nodular prurigo, chronic hand eczema, pemphigus vulgaris, cutaneous lupus).
- They work with various promoters, most of which are prestigious international pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Novartis, Leo Pharma, Sanofi, Abbvie, AstraZeneca, Amgen, Janssen-Cilag, Lilly, Bristol Myers, Kymab, Almirall, Principia Biopharma, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals).
- They have a team of four study coordinators, a data manager and a nurse.
- This line evaluated the magnitude and quality of the evidence on the efficacy and safety of drugs used for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases during the clinical development phase.
- The efficacy and safety of different biologic treatments for moderate-severe psoriasis have been compared through systematic review and meta-analysis and the results have been incorporated into the British Academy of Dermatology's Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Psoriasis.
- For the first time,the influence of the source of funding and the authors' conflict of interest on the methodological quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on psoriasis has been described.
- Two PhD candidates are working on this line of research.
- Promote the training of clinical staff in this line through a course accredited by the Andalusian Agency for Health Quality and annual development on systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
- The group is integrated into and collaborates with the Cochrane Skin Group and the Cochrane Group on methodological bias.
- The group has recently been selected by the Regional Ministry of Health and Families to develop a project entitled "ÉACO: Development and validation of a technological instrument in red for the support in the decision making in clinical practice (PIN-0316-2017)".
Networks
PAIDI CTS-1041 Scientific Group - Coordinator (PI) of the Group "New diagnostic and therapeutic methods in immunomediated inflammatory skin diseases"" that belongs to the Andalusian Research Plan since March 2018
Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology, Rockefeller University, NY, USA
Ezcema center and the Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine Center at Mount Sinai New York (EEUU)
Dept. of Population Health Science and Policy and Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Icahn School of Medicine Center at Mount Sinai New York (EEUU)
Key Words
- immune-mediated skin diseases
- psoriasis
- atopic dermatitis
- vitiligo
- alopecia areata
- genetic polymorphisms
- biological therapies
- cell culture
- cold atmospheric plasma
- cost-efficiency analyses
- systematic reviews
- meta-analyses
- meta-epidemiology
- single cell transcriptome
Información Adicional
Links
Academia Española de Dermatología y Venereología
Acción Psoriasis - Asociación de Pacientes de Psoriasis y Familiares
Icanh School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, USA
Video (Zinkinn platform)
Data analysis visualization club IMIBIC
Featured Publications
We have published 90 articles in scientific journals and as communications to national and international scientific meetings, some of the last and outstanding are:
Ruano J, Gómez-GarcíaF, Gay-Mimbrera J, Aguilar-Luque M, Fernández-Rueda JL, Fernández-Chaichio J, Alcalde-Mellado P, Carmona-Fernandez PJ, Sanz-Cabanillas JL, Viguera-Guerra I, Franco-García F, Cárdenas-Aranzana M, Hernández Romero JL, Gonzalez-Padilla M, Isla-Tejera B, Velez Garcia-Nieto A. Evaluating characteristics of PROSPERO records as predictors of eventual publication of non-Cochrane systematic reviews: a meta-epidemiological study protocol. Systematic Reviews 2018 March [In press]
Gómez‐García F, Epstein D, Isla‐Tejera B, Lorente A, Vélez García‐Nieto A, Ruano J. Short‐term efficacy and safety of new biological agents targeting the interleukin‐23–T helper 17 pathway for moderate‐to‐severe plaque psoriasis: a systematic review and network meta‐analysis. British Journal of Dermatology. 2017 Mar 1;176(3):594-603.
Gómez-García F, Ruano J, Aguilar-Luque M, Alcalde-Mellado P, Gay-Mimbrera J, Hernández-Romero JL, Sanz-Cabanillas JL, Maestre-López B, González-Padilla M, Carmona-Fernández PJ, García-Nieto AV. Abstract analysis method facilitates filtering low-methodological quality and high-bias risk systematic reviews on psoriasis interventions. BMC medical research methodology. 2017 Dec;17(1):180.
Gómez-García F, Ruano J, Gay-Mimbrera J, Aguilar-Luque M, Sanz-Cabanillas JL, Alcalde-Mellado P, Maestre-López B, Carmona-Fernández PJ, González-Padilla M, García-Nieto AV, Isla-Tejera B. Most systematic reviews of high methodological quality on psoriasis interventions are classified as high risk of bias using ROBIS tool. Journal of clinical epidemiology. 2017 Dec 1;92:79-88.
Sanz-Cabanillas JL, Ruano J, Gomez-Garcia F, Alcalde-Mellado P, Gay-Mimbrera J, Aguilar-Luque M, Maestre-Lopez B, Gonzalez-Padilla M, Carmona-Fernandez PJ, Garcia-Nieto AV, Isla-Tejera B. Author-paper affiliation network architecture influences the methodological quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of psoriasis. PloS one. 2017 Apr 12;12(4):e0175419.
Gómez‐García F, Ruano J, Aguilar‐Luque M, Gay‐Mimbrera J, Maestre‐Lopez B, Sanz‐Cabanillas JL, Carmona‐Fernández PJ, González‐Padilla M, Vélez García‐Nieto A, Isla‐Tejera B. Systematic reviews and meta‐analyses on psoriasis: role of funding sources, conflict of interest and bibliometric indices as predictors of methodological quality. British Journal of Dermatology. 2017 Jun 1;176(6):1633-44.
Gay-Mimbrera J, García MC, Isla-Tejera B, Rodero-Serrano A, García-Nieto AV, Ruano J. Clinical and biological principles of cold atmospheric plasma application in skin cancer. Advances in therapy. 2016 Jun 1;33(6):894-909.
Ruano J, Suárez-Fariñas M, Shemer A, Oliva M, Guttman-Yassky E, Krueger JG. Molecular and cellular profiling of scalp psoriasis reveals differences and similarities compared to skin psoriasis. PloS one. 2016 Feb 5;11(2):e0148450.
Technology transfer
We have created a spin off on data mining called info4CURE that has obtained the AENOR quality certificate as Joven Empresa Innovadora (EA0043).
Awards
"Gonzalo Mino Fugarolas" award (to PI) for the best young researcher (2006), University of Cordoba, Spain.
"III Best Innovative Project Award IMIBIC-Roche 2016", Córdoba, Spain.
"Fellowship Infammatory Skin Disease Summit 2016", New York, USA.
"Premio Cátedra de psoriasis Universidad Autónoma de Madrid-Pfizer a la Mejor Publicación 2016 sobre Psoriasis o Artritis Psoriásica", Madrid, Spain.
Collaboration with technology-based companies
Canvax Biotech S.L.
Lynhce Diagnostics S.L.
ZebrafishLab S.L.
